And then there were None
by The Author and Self
Summary: Following the Blood is Thicker Series, Haley's first case for the BAU has a bizarre unsub that switches his MO every time he kills, and Haley swears she's heard of this before. JJ/Reid Pen/Morgan.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello there! This is a new story elaborating on the Blood is Thicker Series, as I have come to refer to it. To bring you up to speed if you've missed anything: Haley is Spencer's sister, now working for the BAU and has been for about two weeks now, they haven't had any major cases up until this point, so it is her first. You are now up to speed.**

**Secondly, this is sort of an experiment, not one like Your Skin is Ice Cold, because that story is what happens when I think too much about things. No, this story is going to follow its title as closely as I can manage while still making it my own story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Let's see how this works out.**

"_The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction." -Aesop _

**One**

It was nine PM on a Friday, and Officer Steven Phillips of Aberdeen PD stood against his car on the corner and rubbed his hands together vigorously. It didn't matter how used to it he was, the weather always seemed to suddenly and drastically chill in November. If one wanted warm, one didn't want to look in Aberdeen, Washington.

He was young, not just out of the academy, but still young enough to be bored and mildly horrified at the prospects of having to stay outside for another hour at this time of year, he just prayed that it wouldn't snow on him. Of course, he knew that he was out here for the right reasons, he had been told to stake out some local restaurants and places people would normally be; there was a killer on the loose.

He hadn't been shown pictures yet, but the guys on top said that they were pretty grim. He had heard rumors though, and they seemed to coincide with what he'd heard about the pictures. Victims had no particular thing in common themselves, they were young or old, fat or skinny, male or female; there was even one couple. They were all killed in entirely different ways, but what they did share could not be overlooked.

Each and every one was abducted on a Friday, and the victim from the previous Friday would turn up in a different spot each time. Each and every one had been found in a grassy or wooded area with metal stakes pounded into the ground around them. The first body, a man who's cause of death had been poisoning with cyanide, had been surrounded by nine stakes; the second, a woman who had overdosed on sleeping pills, was surrounded by only eight. Of course, _he_ wasn't told everything, and he was sure that he didn't _want_ to know everything in this case.

So it had been with three more people, each dying in their own way, but each with the dwindling number of stakes, now it was down to five. One could only imagine what this meant.

Phillips rolled his shoulders back in a shrug at his condition, freezing and waiting for two different things, a body to show up or a person to go missing. The body normally showed up first. His radio buzzed every few minutes with conversations that had nothing to do with him, mainly the officers grumbling about the FBI being dragged into this. Not that he blamed them; Phillips couldn't believe it either.

He knew his Chief, and he was a hard, stubborn man whom was not easily persuaded. So when Chief Steven Robinson had submitted the case file to the feds, the whole Department was astonished. In fact there were rumors flying about Chief Robinson retiring soon, and not wanting his successor to have to deal with such a grisly case.

This is what Phillips was hearing now, buzzing back and forth over the static roar of his radio. They were such eighth grade _girls,_ he thought viciously toward them, but still he knew that he would dive into any conversation about or pertaining to Chief Robinson and the FBI.

He began to look impatiently at his watch and began to give up hope when he heard something very, not gossipy, over the radio. Sudden pandemonium, people shouting and barking orders.

Another body.

--

"Judge Julian Wargrave," JJ pressed the pointer, revealing the corpse of the late Mr. Wargrave slumped in a chair in his judicial garb. Haley straightened some as she saw the sixth body surrounded by the four metal stakes. "Cause of death, multiple shots to the head, found at around 9:15 PM in Aberdeen, Washington. Like the others, he was found with traces of semen on the body." She lowered the remote in silent conclusion.

The rest sat around the table in the conference room with the same air of finality and acceptance, they were definitely going to Washington today. With a nod from Hotch, the team left immediately to the pre-packed overnight bags under their desks kept for sudden flights such as this. Spencer looked up from his desk at Haley's bag. "A little small," he noted.

"What do you mean?"

"Compared to JJ and Emily's, that's a small bag," he said as he stood, flinging his bag over his shoulder. "What's going on?"

Spence, Haley's still overprotective older brother, was looking worriedly at her.

"Why?" she asked earnestly. "Do I look tired?"

"You look like you're working too hard," he admitted.

Haley raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Who doesn't?"

"But that's not why you're upset," Spencer continued, trying to drag it out of her. "Just tell me, Hales! It shouldn't be like pulling teeth."

Haley smiled at him on their way to the plane. "I'm kind of… disconcerted, I guess." Before Spencer could ask what about, she held up her finger to stop him. "It's two things. The first is that I'm going to have to cancel my date with Nick tonight."

"The history teacher?"

"The very one."

"Are you sure he's okay?" Spencer asked for the ump-teenth time.

"He's a nice guy, Spence. But we've never actually _been_ on a date. Just sort of talked on the phone a lot because of work."

"What's number two?"

They were outside, walking toward the jet. Haley took a deep breath of the still-early morning air. "Spence, this sounds crazy, but I swear that I've heard of this crime before. When JJ was explaining it, I was guessing the next MO correctly, but… I've never done _this_ before so why would I know about a crime with the same MO to the T?"

"That is a little weird," Spencer admitted. "Do you think it might be nerves?"

"About my first major case?"

"Let me tell you, the first case is the absolute most nerve-racking. I can't imagine anything to compare it to that would be a sufficient example of the nerves you get. You might just be freaking out."

Haley had to laugh at herself, of course, that might be it. She hadn't been on a _real_ case yet, and Spencer's theory was completely plausible. She conceded the point and sat down in the plane, praying that it would be a smooth flight.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"The victims are both men and women," Morgan restated, going over the case in his mind as the plane took them swiftly, and hopefully sturdily across the country. Haley strained to focus on the conversation in order to keep her fear of flying on the backburner.

"A bi-sexual sadist?" Emily furrowed her brow. "I've never heard of one."

"I don't think it's a bi-sexual unsub," Haley said, her wide-set eyes flickering up to the group with her burst of insight.

"Why?" was the simple answer that came from Hotch. He was testing her, she could tell, to see if she could back theories.

Oh could she. "It goes back to Sigmund Freud and his theories of a child's sexual identity as a result of melancholia, when it realizes it cannot identify sexually with one of its parents, so grief of the loss of 'lust' toward that parent leads it to take on the sexual attributes of the lost parent in order to subconsciously understand why the parent rejected them. It's either one parent or the other, not both. Taking on the attributes of both is too much for the human mentality, which is why I don't believe that bi-sexuality exists."

"Then what is it?" Penelope, who had come due to the time-zone difference between Quantico and Aberdeen, inquired, interested.

"Confusion," Haley shrugged. "Indecisiveness. It could be a mixture of a lot of things. But as for true bi-sexuality, I don't think it's a viable excuse, the unsub's heterosexual."

"He gets off on his motive rather than the victim," Spencer pontificated. "Did you take some of your theory from Judith Butler?"

"Yeah, she and Freud are pretty close in their theories about human gender. However, Freud's dream theories? I don't think dreams are anything past a warped reflection of the day that's passed."

"I'd have to disagree with you there," her brother raised her eyebrows and went started to go off when he was interrupted.

"It's like watching ping pong," Emily smiled. "You can almost see the little white ball go back and forth."

Morgan beamed at that and clapped Spencer on the shoulder. "So we need to figure out this guy's drive, okay," he brought the conversation back to the real world.

"The only way we can do that is learn more about the victims," Rossi leaned back some more. "We don't have enough information with us right now."

JJ nodded and looked at Spencer nervously. Her husband was running his hand through his hair and wrinkling his brow as he debated with Haley. JJ wasn't sure if it pertained to the unsub or not, but it was starting to get heated. She knew that in a few minutes it would bubble over and the scientific pontifications would turn into personal attacks, they would then both laugh over it and continue with a more civilized discussion. She knew this process by heart because this is how it would be at the dinner table when Haley came over. Isabelle would start laughing at them and then it the conversation would shift from scientific things to how big the little girl's gotten.

JJ smiled at the combination of memories and held her slowly growing belly. She hadn't told Spencer yet, that she was expecting, that _they _were expecting. He had been too absorbed in work lately, she wasn't sure of his reaction. Of course, she assumed it would be a good one, but she felt that he didn't need the added stress yet. No one knew, Penelope might have guessed, but she wasn't letting JJ know if she had.

"You okay, JJ?" Haley furrowed her brow at her sister-in-law. Haley had just accepted the fact that the group conversation had completely shifted, partly due because they hadn't actually seen the real crime scenes or had a chance to investigate the victims fully, the other part due to trying to make the mood lighter.

Cases where there was a limited amount of time, as assumed by Haley due to the dwindling number of metal stakes in the ground, cases were difficult and straining. The jet was really the only place they could enjoy solace and actually have time to think. JJ took her time in responding.

"Jayj?"

"I'm just fine, Hales. Don't worry about me," with a sweet smile, she quickly went to her folder and started to shuffle through some papers, trying to look busy.

Emily caught Haley staring intently at JJ. _"What?"_ she mouthed.

Haley shrugged in response, and began to go through her bag after they had concluded the first firing round. She looked around to make sure the conversation had officially ended before she lost herself in a book and night set itself around the flying vessel.

--

_The sounds of my boots crunching on the slightest pebble against a smooth concrete floor. _

_The dim light of the stuffy storage pod provides an excellent palette to work with. With this dim light, everything seems darker, and I can't really tell where things start and end._

_I look up, see the man bound, his eyes pleading for me to let him go. He even begins to whimper._

_No._

_I feel my knife, stolen from Spencer's kitchen and kept under my mattress just for nights like these. One more step forward._

_He begins to cry. Bliss._

_Then I raise the knife, knowing exactly where I'm going to cut first. I'm well versed in this; practice makes perfect._

"Hales!"

Haley jerked from her slumber and clenched onto her brother, who had just shaken her. Her breath was heavy, and her forehead glistened slightly in the half-light.

"Haley, you were dreaming; you're okay," Spencer whispered to her.

She leaned back into her chair, putting the book that she had fallen asleep reading underneath, and lifted her hand to her temple. "I'm sorry. Still get those sometimes," she smiled in a weak attempt to play the nightmare down.

"Tell me about it," Spencer said.

Haley gave him a strange look of reluctance. "Spence, you'll think I've regressed."

His look became even more serious. "Regressed?" he asked.

"It was about killing someone," she said quickly and quietly, looking around the plane to see who might have heard. The only one awake other than Haley and Spencer was Hotch, and he was focused completely on the case. "But it wasn't just… like… I don't know, a _normal_ dream about killing someone, if one could call something like that normal. It was the way _I_ did it when I… did that stuff." She spoke quietly and sharply, quickly trying to outline her experience to her brother while at the same time putting up a façade of relaxation.

She saw his face as he took in this new information and processed it, then his eyes flicked over her body language and processed that too.

"You're still scared," he said. "Of the first case. Why?"

"You said it before… nerves I guess."

"I… I don't believe you," he raised an eyebrow.

She looked him up and down for any sign that he might back down from this fight, and there didn't seem to be a crack in his wall. She took a deep breath. "I'm not afraid of the case itself… I mean, I've dealt with killers and dead bodies and being a victim and consoling people and figuring things out, the whole nine yards. I'm just afraid of what the case might do to me. Maybe my dream represented those fears?"

Another silence from Spencer, he cracked a smile.

"What?" she asked seriously, knitting her eyebrows.

"'A warped reflection of the day that's passed,' I believe you said," he stood up, paused, then knelt back down to whisper in Haley's ear. "We all have nightmares. We see things every day that no one ever wants to see. Freud may be right, you may be right, I don't know. What I do know is that dreams can speak louder than actions. I know you aren't going to regress simply because your dream reflects that worry to me. I'll prove that I was right when we leave Aberdeen, because you won't have started killing people again."

He stood up again and rubbed his hand on her shoulder as he walked past, adding, "I have some sleeping pills if you need them."

Haley looked after him and raised her eyebrows.

"Prescription," he handed the little bottle to her. "Don't worry."

"As long as you aren't," Haley said and dry swallowed a pill, "I won't be. Night."

"`Night," he said softly and went to sit next to JJ.

Haley fell asleep as the sound of the engines of the plane played a muted lullaby, dark gray forms of clouds covering and uncovering the bright full moon as the team was gently swept across the country.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry about that chapter mix up thing last go around. Fixed it! (obviously) And now we're back on track and ACTUALLY going to land the plane. Yay! I figured two chapters on the jet was enough, even with a little Reid on Reid battle of minds going with the whole Freud thing. Read and Review! (And please, do not get thrown off by my random author rants.)**

**Three**

As Haley stepped out of the big black SUV and into the bright overcast day, she immediately pulled her sunglasses down to shield her eyes. She looked around and saw the rest of the team had done the same. Having only really ever experienced East Coast weather, she had never seen a cloudy day that required her shades. The sky wasn't gray, it was _white_.

She looked around and realized that they were on the edge of a small park area, and there was some commotion happening nearby in the woods, and in seconds she had made the connection. _There's the scene_.

She followed step with the rest of her team toward the confused stream of reporters and police officers holding them off and under the yellow tape that was a weak attempt at prohibiting anyone's entry.

"Detective Phillips," Hotch said, extending his hand. "Agent Hotchner from Quantico. These are Agents Morgan, Prentiss, Reid, and Ja—sorry – Reid. This is Dr. Reid, and Penelope Morgan, our tech analyst."

"A whole lot of Reid's in there, huh? A… family thing?" Phillips asked in an attempt at a joke, eyeing Haley up and down.

"Try a paperwork nightmare," Penelope whispered up at Haley, who dwarfed the shorter woman.

"So what was the condition of the body when it was first discovered?" Prentiss jumped in, scanning the scene.

"Julian Wargrave, yeah, this sort of hit the town hard. He was pretty close to the Police Force," Phillips said toward Emily, but never took his eyes away from Haley. She focused her attention on Penelope as though she was having a very in depth conversation with her. Looking at Prentiss, Phillips finished. "Shot through his head wearing his robes and stuff. The guy even found one of those powdered wigs to stick on him. I didn't think they used those anymore."

"They don't," Spencer spoke up. "Not in the United States anyway. The unsub must have made a special attempt to purchase the wig as a symbol."

"A symbol of what?" Phillips creased his brow.

"Authority," Morgan offered up. "Power, or probably just to let the person who found the body to know that this man was a judge."

"It also can mean that his victims aren't random," Haley said. "The fact that he already had the wig means that he knew his next target would be a judge. And there's only one in the city, am I correct?"

Phillips nodded.

"If he targeted Wargrave, then he must have targeted the others as well. He's a meticulous planner, with a greater motive than sexual craving," she finished.

"Seems like you guys have already got this thing figured out," Phillips had to stop his jaw from going slack. All this from a wig?

"We're still forming a profile, what we say now is inconclusive until we figure out more about the unsub. Is there anything else here that we need to see? When was the victim last seen alive?" Hotch asked authoritatively.

"We haven't done too many interviews yet…" Phillips let his voice trail off, nervous under Hotch's gaze.

"JJ and, er, Haley should conduct the interviews with witnesses, some are sure to crop up. Reid, I need you to develop a geographical profile with the pick-up and dump sites. Prentiss and Rossi, investigate the pick-up and dump sites; figure out what's going on with the metal stakes. Morgan, you're with me in furthering the examination of this site."

Morgan nodded, and started walking further toward the site with Hotch. "I'll show the rest of you guys to the station," Phillips said, climbing into his standard-issue Impala.

--

The small police station wasn't much, but had its own conference room in which the BAU set up. Reid was already working on his geographical profile, stuff Haley hadn't sat down and tried to work out yet. She couldn't think about now, she had to think about the witnesses coming in for questioning.

"It's pretty funny watching Hotch try to figure out what to call you," JJ mused, taking out case files to go into another room where they would start the questioning. Not an interrogation, just to lay some groundwork. For this, Haley was thankful. Working with JJ was a good way to get her feet wet.

Haley smiled. "It's pretty awkward having three Reid's on the same team," she agreed. "I'd have a hard time too, if I were him. I'll have to think of something more professional than Haley."

"H. Reid?" JJ suggested jokingly.

"Yeah, or Agent Haley," she joined in as they organized the folders and left the conference room to go to the smaller one, actually built for interrogations. The second Haley walked in, she felt threatened. "JJ?"

"Yeah, Hales?"

"I'm not really getting the 'Just Questioning' feel from this room. It would make people nervous."

"I agree," JJ looked around for something not grey and standard-issue. There wasn't even a window in the room.

Haley looked out in the bull pen before she shut the door, searching for something to make it more homey, her eyes settling on a fichus tree, it's trunk braided up to a point, and, as it grew older, expanding into a tree about five feet tall. "Be right back," she said and put her bag down to hold the door open as she trotted off.

JJ sat, a bit confused, looking at the door until she came back in with the massive mini-tree. Suddenly, she was on board. "Oh yeah, _that'll_ calm you down!" she grinned.

"I always feel comforted in the presence of a fichus tree," Haley joked. "We could have this and leave the door open so different sounds come in a little. But we're secluded enough in this hallway so that no one stares at us during questioning."

"Well, that _does _sort of take the edge off this room," she submitted. "One would think you'd done this for twenty years."

Haley let the wise-beyond-your-years comment slide. She'd heard that enough to last three lifetimes. "My thoughts exactly," she referred to JJ's first remark. "We could also warm it up a little."

"No, no, please. It's steaming in here already," JJ raised her eyebrows.

"You sure? I haven't even taken my jacket off yet. What's wrong?"

_I'm pregnant_, JJ thought at her younger counterpart, who'd never been through the hormonal changes she was experiencing. One of those changes was causing her to sweat like a pig in that moment. "Nothing, I'm not sick. Maybe later we'll warm it up."

"Okay," Haley said. JJ could practically _see_ the brain behind the eyes trying to work things out. She'd seen the same look on her husband nearly every day. It was silent in the room for a few moments until Haley got a buzzing sound from her phone on the table, a text from Phillips reading that he was sending in a witness for questioning in ten minutes. Haley broke the silence: "What do you do with Isabelle when you and Spence are gone?"

"My mother lives nearby, and she comes and takes care of her," JJ said warmly. "Why?"

"Just thinking about kids," Haley said.

"Why?" JJ asked cautiously, ready to change the subject in case her friend was on the verge of pregnancy discovery.

"And nursery rhymes."

"Oh," JJ said, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Do you ever tell Isabelle the one about the ten little soldiers?" Haley ventured, not looking at JJ, but at her phone, which was still out on the table.

"My mother told me that one once or twice, but I don't remember all the words myself," JJ said. "So, unless my mother's told her, Isabelle's never heard that one. Why?"

"My adoptive mother told me that one," Haley murmured.

"Is that really what's on your mind? Mother Goose?" JJ picked.

"I think-"

"Agents Reid?" asked another officer as he opened the door a little wider into the interrogation room. "We have the first witnesses here. Do you want to see them?"

"How many?" JJ asked.

"Two, a couple, they saw Wargrave at the restaurant last night at the bar."

"Bring them in together," Haley nodded, giving JJ a weak smile which quickly faded as she saw the couple.

The girl, tall, fake blonde, fake tanned, and wearing a yellow sweater with a pink plaid skirt trotted in on her four-inch heels, followed by her boyfriend: blonde, buzz-cut, letterman's jacket, the whole nine yards. Haley closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she'd known these people her whole life, but it wasn't time to let them get in the way of finding this killer.

JJ had already introduced them, and Haley realized that she was shaking hands. "And you are?"

"I'm Alicia Brooks, and this is Josh Higgens," the blonde smacked her gum.

"Nice to meet you, Alicia."

"Ali-CEE-ah, not Al-EE-sha," Alicia wasn't hesitant to correct.

"Right," Haley smiled and sighed inwardly. "So, could you describe the last time you saw Justice Wargrave?"

"Oh, sure," Josh started. "We were at Four Leaves."

"It's an expensive restaurant in town," Alicia said, playing with a small chunk of hair.

JJ leaned in, knowing full well that Haley was disgusted. "Did you see anything unusual last night? Anyone you didn't know, like a stranger?"

"Sure, there were a couple of people we didn't know. I mean, Aberdeen's been getting some tourists in a lot lately, but it's not season so they're drifting off right now. Summer's when we're almost backed out of the city," Josh offered. "There were, like, two people we didn't know. Right, baby?"

"Uh-huh," she murmured, still playing with her hair.

"Well, if nothing was particularly unusual, then what did you want to come and tell us?" Haley asked, keeping her voice level.

"Because we saw the Judge there, at that restaurant," Alicia piped up. "He was at a table for two talking to another guy."

"Can you describe the other guy?"

"Um… tall?"

"How tall would you say?"

"About six feet, four inches?"

"Okay, anything else?"

"He had grey hair… like, silver-y grey," Josh piped up. "And his nose was real big and crooked. It was weird looking."

"Like a hockey player?" JJ asked, knitting her eyebrows.

"Sure, only he was old. Like he played hockey a long time ago. He was wearing a suit."

"Did this man leave the restaurant with Justice Wargrave?" Haley asked.

"No, he hung out there and paid their ticket. I think Judge Wargrave skipped out early on him."

"He was really loud about it, kind of upset," Alicia wrinkled her nose as if emotion were a sickness that only the lesser contracted. "Like, he bumped a lot of chairs."

"Did anyone follow him out?" Haley asked.

"Ugh, I didn't notice. What, you think I was watching him the whole time?" Alicia scowled.

"I don't think so," Josh said, raising his eyebrows as if to apologize for Alicia's actions.

"Are we done, babe?" she smacked her gum.

"Thank you for your time," JJ wrapped up and stood up, shaking their hands.

Josh led Alicia out, his hand slipping ever lower on her back as she strutted out.

"Ugh!" Haley put her head on the table. JJ started to stand up to stick her head out the door. "At least we got something."

"The hooked-nose man?"

"From the way he was described, it sounds to me like he'd be Wargrave's peer."

"An attorney?" JJ asked.

"That wouldn't be his peer, that would be his footstool. No, I think the guy they were talking about is another Justice."

"Wargrave was the only one in Aberdeen."

"From a different city, maybe," she mused, picking up her phone and pressing numbers quickly on her speed dial.

"_Why hello, there Miss Haley! What can I do for ya?_" Penelope said perkily. She had been unpacking earlier and Haley was unsure as to exactly where she was now.

"Hey, Pen, where are you right now?"

"_Within keyboard distance, Ginger Snap, what do you need?_"

"How many cities surround Aberdeen?"

"_Three_," came the almost immediate response.

"Completely?"

"_Trust me, sweets, Aberdeen is like a small town oasis in a larger town desert._"

"How many legal Judges are there in the surrounding towns?"

"_Let me see… fifteen_."

"You got pictures?"

"_Oodles._"

"Would you please send them to my phone?" Haley asked.

"_Oh, baby, they're already there_," she said; Haley could hear the smile in her voice. "_Now do you have a real challenge for me?_"

"Maybe later, Pen," Haley smiled as Penelope disappeared from her audio. Half a second later, her phone buzzed as the fifteen pictures came in. When clicked, each of them had a history of the Judge. "And thank you," Haley lifted her eyebrows. "JJ, can we still catch those two?"

"They're checking out right now," she said, already walking out to them. "Excuse me!" Haley heard JJ call. "We need you to look at some pictures."

--

"Thanks, Haley," Emily Prentiss said as she hung up the phone.

"And?" Rossi asked, dodging a pile of horse dung in the middle of the grazing pasture they were walking through, the dump site of the first victim who had been poisoned with cyanide, Andrew Moore.

"Wargrave was seen earlier at a restaurant called Four Leaves, maybe an hour or two before he died. He was talking to another Justice from a different city, Allen. Apparently, Allen was talking to Wargrave about how he was going to take over the court in Aberdeen," she sighed.

"He can do that?" Rossi pondered.

"He can if Wargrave had been fired," she looked up at him. "Wargrave had abused his judiciary powers and had been fired earlier that day, too soon for it to get public."

"And killed later that night, it was never publicized. The people think Allen is being appointed to take over Wargrave's position, not lobbying for it."

"And apparently, someone thought that firing Wargrave wasn't a good enough punishment."

"You suggesting vindication?"

"Well, the unsub made a show of Wargrave after he was killed; he wanted to make sure that _everyone _knew who he was. He was embarrassing the victim, feeling it was right. The unsub wants everyone to see and appreciate his work. He's a narcissist."

"So in order to derive pleasure from his display, he'd have to be there when the body was discovered to see the reaction in the crowd," Rossi commented.

"He's been at all five sightings," Emily connected. "And he'll continue to pick people out of the crowd."

"But who?"

--

"Jayj, are you feeling okay?" Spencer asked, leaning against the wall as his wife flipped through channels on the hotel's television, getting ready for sleep. She couldn't sleep without it.

"Why?"

"You're pale," he said.

"Must be the overcast weather," she shrugged.

"You're lying," he pressed. "You always move something when you lie, JJ. It could be your hand, or your eyes, or your shoulders."

She took a deep breath, feeling night sickness. Funny, she'd had morning sickness with Isabelle, but with this new baby, it was a different ball park. Even funnier was that she was trying to hide it from Spencer, who would be happy for her if she let him know at gunpoint. The funniest part was that he knew she was hiding something.

"What's going on?" he asked, sitting on the bed and gently taking the remote from her, as she had set her focus on the rhythmically shifting channels controlled by her thumb rather than listen to him. "Tell me what's wrong. Are you sick? Do you need to go home?"

"I'm home wherever you are," she rolled her eyes at him as he set the channel to Lifetime, her (and possibly every woman's) secret favorite. She only flipped it to that when Spencer was asleep. "How did you know?"

"I don't go to sleep until you're asleep, and I know you don't settle down until you think I'm asleep. I hear you change it from the news; I know you aren't _that_ serious," he brought her closer to him, and leaned into her ear. "Tell me what's going on," he whispered.

"Spence!" she giggled and squirmed away from him. "I thought you were going to say something sexy!"

"And what would make you think that?" he asked, a smile escaping him.

"You were trying to trick me into telling you!"

"So you _are_ hiding something," he said smugly until he saw her face, after which, he turned red. "I'm sorry, JJ, I-I didn't mean to embarrass you or anything. I… I just want to know what's going on and when you're pale, you're either sick or upset and-"

"I'm afraid that if I tell you, you'll get upset, or freak yourself out and not work well."

"I can handle things," Spencer said. "What's going on with you? Tell me."

She snuggled up to him, placing his hand on her still small belly. "Spence, I'm pregnant," she smiled up at him as she watched his expression switch from shock to a brilliant smile.

"And he's mine," he said, almost child-like himself with the statement. She laughed, knowing he meant no slight to Isabelle.

"He's going to be so smart," JJ said.

"Just a little smart, not… not like me," he said. "I want him to be more like you."

JJ cradled his chin, and pulled his lips toward hers.

--

Haley walked to Hotch's door and knocked, feeling slightly awkward. Was this an awkward situation? Coming to your boss' hotel room alone late at night? It certainly sounded sketchy.

Hotch answered the door, still in his suit and tie. "Haley," he said, a little surprised. "Is there anything wrong?"

"I… can… can I come in?" she asked. Hotch side stepped and she walked in under his arm. She heard the door close behind her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's strange though. It's like I've heard of this case before. I tried to explain it to JJ, but then the witnesses came in and it was like a whirlwind after that."

"The job does get hectic."

"The point is," Haley got the conversation back on track. "The point is that I've been in a state of déjà vu since we landed here. I recognize this… subconsciously… I think. I'm overlooking something."

"No one said we had to solve it on the first day here," Hotch said reasonably. "And no one put the pressure on Agent Haley Reid to solve the case on her own. That's what this team is about, we're all a different piece, and no one can solve a whole case by themselves. Take your time thinking about what's nagging at you, and share it with the team. That's the sign of a true agent, Agent Reid," he added awkwardly.

Haley nodded. "Yes, sir. Till Friday, right?" she said. "And, Hotch?"

"Yes?"

"Agent Garrett will work. It's sort of homage to my parents."

"She thought she saw the smallest dance of a smile on Hotch's lips. "Thank you Agent Garrett," he said, nodding her out of his room.


End file.
